Frisk was getting dressed for school. It was rather exciting, going to school five out of seven days. On the weekends, when they didn't have homework, Toriel allowed them to play with their friends.
Today, though, was going to be a special day, which is why they were dressing so light.
After getting dressed, they headed downstairs to have breakfast. Toriel was wrapping up her own work, reviewing her plan for the day.
"Excited for the day, my child?" she asked. Frisk nodded in response. "This will be your first field trip. And it is to Hotland as well."
'Well, it's only to Alphys' lab,' Frisk pointed out. 'But I'm still excited. I haven't been there since… you know.'
"Yes, it has been a while," Toriel agreed, avoiding saying it directly. "Now, when you are done, you should go get your bag."
Frisk finished eating then ran back up to their room. They debated for a moment on what to pack for the day. The field trip was going to last the entire school day. As they packed, they felt a slight shift in their Soul.
'Asriel, did you feel something?' they signed, asking the voice in their head. They saw something out of the corner of their eye and turned to look.
"RAAAHHHH!"
"Ah!" Frisk screamed, falling back.
"Ha! You should have seen your face!" Asriel chuckled, almost doubled over in laughter.
Frisk growled before looking at the apparition in front of them. It was definitely the same Asriel from their dreams, with a green shirt with yellow stripes and black pants. He was slightly see-through, though. 'Did you have to do that?' they signed angrily.
"Hey, can't I have some fun?" Asriel chuckled. "And check it out." He spread his arms wide, gesturing to himself. "Now I can make myself visible. At least to you."
'That's cool,' Frisk signed, standing up. Asriel tried to help them by taking their hand but his just phased through Frisk.
"Guess I still have a ways to go," Asriel commented. "Hey, if you don't mind, I'd like to stay like this for the rest of the day, see what I can do."
'Okay. Just don't distract me,' Frisk advised. 'And don't make me do anything stupid at a bad time.'
"Aye aye, captain," Asriel mock saluted.
After that, which went on for too long, they went downstairs, where Toriel was impatiently waiting.
"What kept you, my child?" she asked.
'Sorry, mom. Was deciding what to bring with me,' Frisk lied.
"I will accept that. Now, let us be off." She took their hand and they walked together to Waterfall, Asriel following unseen.
"You know, the more I see, the more I remember," he said, not expecting Frisk to talk back. "I can faintly remember what the Underground was like when I was alive. I don't think Snowdin was this big. Maybe a few shops and a handful of houses. Certainly not the full town it is now."
It went like that for the rest of the journey, Asriel commenting on something that had changed since he died. At least, what he could remember. They arrived at the school and Frisk waited in their classroom. Noelle showed up shortly after, also aware that today was a field trip day. Ten minutes before the bell rang, the rest of the class arrived.
MK was excited to be going to Hotland, as was Jockington. Catti seemed indifferent. Berdly was still as snobbish as always. He still held a grudge toward Frisk for what happened on that first day.
Once the bell rang, everyone went over to their desk but nobody sat down, as they all expected to be getting up in a moment.
"Good morning, class," Toriel greeted, everyone returning it. "We are taking our field trip to the labs in Hotland today. I hope you are all ready."
"You bet!" Berdly shouted. "We will be able to gaze upon the magnificence of the splendid labs and peruse the place where our knowledge can be put to proper use."
"I'm excited," Noelle agreed.
"It's gonna be so awesome!" MK said.
"Well, gather your things," Toirel said. "And stay together, as we are walking there."
After everyone got prepared, Toriel lead them to Hotland. Frisk was at the front of the procession though Berdly kept trying to cut ahead. Once they were in the magma-filled chambers of Hotland, a few shed some of the heavier clothes they wore.
Frisk got their first proper look at the front of the Lab. Last time they had been here, Sans was carrying them, having nearly passed out from a bullet fragment stuck in them.
"Impressive," Asriel commented. "I don't think this was here when I was around. At least, it wasn't this big."
As they stood before the lab, Frisk saw a glowing golden star in the middle of the rocky plateau. They had seen those in many places in the Ruins, as well as in Snowdin, Waterfall and a few during their brief visit to Hotland a while back. They weren't sure what they were for, though. Regardless, Frisk touched the glowing star.
"Being on this field trip with your friends fills you with determination," Asriel said.
'What?' Frisk asked.
Asriel's face went blank for a moment before shaking his head. "Wow. That was weird. But that is what you were feeling just now, right?"
Frisk nodded, confused.
"Alright class," Toriel said to them all. "Now that we are here, for safety's sake, we are going to employ a buddy system. So, everyone pair up."
Frisk debated on who to partner up with. They were debating between Noelle and MK when Berdly walked up to her.
"Well, I think we'll make good partners," he said to the deer-like Monster.
"Um, actually, I…" Noelle shyly tried to say.
Seeing that she didn't want to go with Berdly, Frisk stepped forward and took her hand. She would be their partner.
"Hey, I picked her," Berdly protested.
"That's not a problem," MK says as he comes up. "You can be my partner instead!"
"What! Um, actually, I think I'd prefer…" He trailed off as he looked to Catti and Jockington.
"No way, Berdly," Jockington said. "You know Catti and I are partners in everything, ever since our first gym class, when she used me as a hula hoop."
Berdly sighed, hoping for an alternate partner, but Frisk brought Noelle a step back to make it clear to him. He sighed before standing next to MK.
"Yay!" MK cheered, skipping. "This is going to be awesome! We're going to be great partners!"
"Hooray," Berdly deadpanned.
"Everyone have a buddy?" Toriel cheerfully asked. "Good. Time to go in."
Frisk followed, still holding Noelle's hand.
"Hey, thanks for that," she said quietly. "I don't think I could have said 'no' to him."
'No problem,' Frisk signed.
They stepped into the lab and everyone gaped in awe at the sight. It was more impressive than Frisk remembered. They walked into the main area of the lab, where Alphys was waiting.
"W-welcome," she nervously greeted. "I'm Doctor Alphys, the Royal Scientist."
"Cool!" MK said, looking at her in amazement. "We're getting a tour from the Royal Scientist herself! So, what are we going to see?"
"W-well, some of this stuff isn't really suitable for children," Alphys explained. "But the parts I can show you are some of the projects I'm working on. A-and it's to show you how you might work i-if you decided to pursue a career towards here."
"Ah, learning how to function like a scholarly man," Berdly said, regaining some of his bravado. "This will be an excellent opportunity to see what my future holds away from these plebians."
"Pleb-what?" MK asked, befuddled.
"Does that guy even speak proper English?" Asriel sarcastically asked. "Or is he just saying big words to sound smarter?"
Frisk shook their head.
"A-anyway," Alphys stuttered, "F-follow me." She showed them to one of the labs, where she was currently designing a few gadgets. "T-this is where I do work for the Royal Guard. The Captain of the Guard asked me to equip her warriors with the n-necessary tools to fight any h-humans that show up."
"Yo! You work with Undyne!" MK shouted in glee, Berdly having to cover his ears. "That is beyond awesome! She's the BEST!"
"Um… y-yeah," Alphys quietly agreed.
"MK, please keep your voice down," Toriel chided gently.
"Sorry," MK apologized. "But Undyne is just so cool."
Frisk was looking at some of the objects on the desk and spotted one that looked like a futuristic eye-scanner. They were tempted to pick it up and examine it, but decided against it. Alphys saw what they were looking at and picked it up herself.
"T-this is just the prototype for something I'm designing for the Snowdin Canine Unit," she explained. "It's a DT scanner. S-since humans have a lot of it, but we don't have any, it will allow someone to detect whether or not the person is a human."
"Cool," MK said. "I didn't think science could be so amazing."
"Of course you wouldn't," Berdly remarked. "Someone as uneducated as you would find the truly stimulating stuff boring."
"Berdly, be nice," Toriel warned.
"Um, a-anyway," Alphys said. "I've got a few more things to show you, then we'll finish w-with a tour of the CORE."
Noelle took a look at a set of blueprints that were tacked to the wall. "Hey, what's this?" she asked. The design looked humanoid, but it was massive in scale.
"Oh, that's a work in progress," Alphys rushed, running over. "It's also secret, so you're not supposed to see it." She took it down and shoved it in a drawer.
"Sorry," Noelle apologized.
"Perhaps you should continue," Toriel suggested. "We have a lot to go over."
"R-right. Um, anyway…"
Alphys showed a few more things to them, though she did have a couple projects that Toriel had her assign while they were there. One was assembling a robotic arm from a kit she had made with instructions to test them.
Frisk and Noelle were able to complete theirs the fastest, Berdly and MK coming in second and Catti and Jockington took the longest.
After that, Alphys lead them to the CORE. Frisk had heard several people mention it; the source of all the Underground's power. Seeing it in person, though, was entirely different. It was truly massive in size, sitting on top of a lake of magma. Frisk heard Alphys explain that it worked by converting the geothermal energy of the Earth's core into the magical electricity that powered everything, though how it did it, Frisk didn't catch.
As they stood on one of the rocky levies that surrounded the CORE, Frisk stepped closer to the edge to get a better look. The whole structure went up to the roof of the cave, touching the ceiling.
"Wow," they muttered.
"It is impressive, isn't it," Asriel commented. "I'm pretty sure this was here in my time, as well."
"Frisk, dear, do not stand so close to the edge," Toriel cautioned. "The ground is not the most stable, it could give way."
Frisk stepped back. 'Sorry. I'll keep that in mind,' they signed. While everyone was gazing, MK paid no heed to Toriel's warning and walked closer to the edge to look at the CORE better.
"Wow. It looks so cool, even from here!"
"I-it's even more impressive inside," Alphys said. "The layout is made of swappable parts, so we can configure a-any puzzles inside it that we n-need."
"That's so awesome!" MK shouted, jumping up and down in glee.
Frisk felt happy for their friend, but noticed a crack forming on the ground around him. Thinking quickly, they ran forward and grabbed him, pushing him back just in time, but the ground was too soft and Frisk tumbled down with a separate chunk that gave out under them.
"Frisk!" Asriel screamed, his voice clearer than everyone else's. Frisk screamed as they fell, the magma rushing up to meet them.
They didn't want to die. Not again! They really, really didn't want to die. The whole world went white as they fell…
Suddenly, they were outside the lab, their hand hovering over the gold star. Frisk jumped back in shock.
"What the!" Asriel shouted. "Weren't we… and you were just… how did we get back here?!"
"Alright class," Toriel's voice made them both turn around to look at her. "Now that we are here, for safety's sake, we are going to employ a buddy system. So, everyone pair up."
Frisk was confused for a moment. What was going on? Didn't they already do this? They saw Berdly approaching Noelle and rushed to her side, taking her hand.
"Oh, Frisk. Do you want to be my partner?" Noelle asked. They nodded. "Alright."
"Uh… but I was going to…" Berdly said.
"Don't worry, dude," MK said as he came up. "We can be partners!"
Frisk watched as the exchange played out exactly like before. Once Berdly begrudgingly accepted MK as his partner, they all turned and followed Toriel into the lab.
"You died," Asriel said. "Or… you almost did. This all happened before and now it's repeating. Just like last time. And you can't write it off as a dream."
Frisk would have responded, but they were still holding Noelle's hand and she would notice them signing.
"You can't just say it's a coincidence," Asriel pointed out. "It's too perfect. At least no one seems to remember… except me. Why do I remember?"
That line of thought was cut off as Alphys appeared.
"W-welcome," she nervously greeted. "I'm Doctor Alphys, the Royal Scientist."
"Cool!" MK said, looking at her in amazement. "We're getting a tour from the Royal Scientist herself! So, what are we going to see?"
Frisk listened and watched as everything played out exactly like it did before. Asriel even copied the lines word for word, in the exact same tone to boot, just to emphasize it.
After a while, before the assignment, Frisk stood at the back of the group to talk to Asriel. 'Okay, you've convinced me. Somehow, we traveled back in time.'
"You almost fell into the lava. But before you did, everything went white and suddenly, we were back outside the lab. Any clues what happened?"
'No. That's never happened to me before.'
"Except when you slipped and fell off that cliff, then woke up in your bed earlier that day," Asriel pointed out. "Somehow, you're traveling back in time, then changing things. Any ideas how?"
'Let's just focus on making sure I avoid falling into magma again,' Frisk decided. 'We'll figure out what to do about my weird ability after.'
The rest of the day proceeded as normal, though Frisk and Noelle were able to breeze though their robot project faster this time around. They walked to the CORE, Frisk only half paying attention to Alphys' explanation this time around, having heard it once before. This time, they kept a close eye on MK, to make sure he didn't make the same mistake.
This time, when he started to take a couple steps closer to the edge, Frisk pulled him back. 'Careful, the ground probably isn't very stable.'
"Oh, good point," MK agreed. Frisk heard the same exchange between Alphys and MK about the CORE's layout, only this time, MK was alright.
"Well, we managed to prevent MK from falling to his doom this time around," Asriel said. "Now that that's settled, what are we going to do about your strange ability?"
'I don't know,' Frisk admitted. 'I don't even know what I did or what causes it. Not to mention that no one else seems to remember what happened.'
"Hmm… maybe those gold stars have something to do with it?" Asriel suggested. "You did reappear right next to it."
'Maybe, but who could we talk to about it? Mom would freak out.'
"Frisk," Noelle said, getting their attention. "You need to keep up. CORE's not too far ahead."
'Sorry. Coming.' Frisk jogged to catch up.
"Maybe you should talk to Alphys about this," Asriel suggested. "She's a scientist. She might have an explanation or be capable of helping you out."
Frisk supposed it was a start. They resolved to talk to her about it after the tour was finished. She was clearly stressed enough as it is.
A few hours later, after being shown through the CORE's current layout, they returned to Alphys' lab. Toriel had them carry pages around that had questions that needed answered. After Frisk handed theirs and Noelle's to the teacher, they asked if they could talk to Alphys for a few moments. Toriel agreed.
Frisk walked up to the lizard, who seemed to be preparing to get back into her work. They tapped her shoulder to get her attention.
"Oh, hi, Frisk. Everything alright?" she asked.
'I need to tell you something,' they signed. Once they had her attention, they explained. 'I've been having these weird episodes where part of the day repeats itself. About a year ago, while playing with my friends, I slipped, fell off a cliff and next thing I know, I'm waking up in my bed earlier that day, like the whole day had been a bad dream. Everything repeated, except this time I was able to avoid the fall. Then, just today, while heading to the CORE, I fell off the side of a path and towards the magma, but before I fell in, I was back here, just outside the lab, right before we picked out partners.'
Alphys looked astonished and slightly skeptical. "So, you're saying you time traveled into the past twice now?" she asked quietly.
'I think so. Any idea why?'
"Um… no. But come back tomorrow and I'll see what's going on. Maybe it has something to do with the body and your Soul."
'Okay,' Frisk agreed.
After that, Frisk returned to the group and Toriel led them back to school, just in time for the final bell. After that, everyone returned home, Frisk going with Toriel. As they walked, Asriel was muttering to himself.
'You okay?' Frisk asked.
"Not really. I mean, you almost died. Again. That was scary," he admitted.
'Not the first time,' Frisk reminded. 'Hopefully, whatever this is, it isn't just a fluke and should something like that ever happen again, I'll be fine.'
Asriel nodded in agreement.
They got back to the house and Frisk set their school stuff in their room. As they spent the rest of the day with Toriel, Asriel remained silent the whole time. If Frisk had to give his attitude a name, they'd call it 'contemplative'. He was clearly thinking of something, but he wasn't sharing it with Frisk.
After they had supper and went to bed, Frisk decided to ask Asriel about it. 'You've been awfully quiet this evening. Have a lot on your mind?'
"Just… thinking."
'Did you get more memories back?' Frisk asked. 'Did something happen today that made you remember more of your past?'
Asriel remained silent for a long moment before responding. "No. I didn't."
Frisk could tell he was lying, but they could also see that whatever it was, it was upsetting. They weren't going to pry for now. But if whatever it was tore him up, they would investigate further. 'Okay, if you're sure. Well, goodnight.' Frisk got under the covers and quickly fell asleep.
I just don't understand how this is possible. That… that feeling… it did happen before, didn't it? And mom… what's going on? How did all this happen? And why am I here? I… I have to find out. I have to try, at least this one time.
Frisk opened their eyes and slowly, they sat up. They raised their hands, touching their face and feeling it's features. They sighed in relief.
"So… it is just like with Chara," they muttered. "But… how? Well, doesn't really matter. Better do this quick." They got out of bed, their legs a little shaky. "Sorry, Frisk. But this is only temporary."
Quietly, they opened the door to their room. They listened and they could hear Toriel still in the kitchen, working on schoolwork. If they were silent as they walked, they could get what they wanted without getting her attention. They walked down the stairs, their steps light. They reached the ground floor and walked to the bookcase.
They scanned it with their eyes, reading the titles, but looking for one thing in particular.
C'mon. Where does she have it? Surely, she wouldn't have gotten rid of it.
They kept looking, but couldn't find it. Instead, they decided to glance at the history book.
Perhaps this might explain what happened.
They thumbed through the pages, going to one specific date. But before they could read, Toriel's voice called to them from the kitchen entryway.
"Frisk? What are you doing up?" she questioned, causing them to start.
'Oh, uh, hi mom,' they nervously greeted. 'I… couldn't sleep.'
"Did you have a nightmare?" she asked.
'No,' they signed. 'Just… a lot on my mind.'
"Like what?"
They gripped the edges of the book, glancing down at the pages and catching a few important words. 'Why do you live alone?'
"Why do you ask?"
'You used to be married, right? To the king. What happened? Didn't you… love him?'
Toriel's soft gaze hardened, which scared them, making them take a step back.
"That was a long time ago," she said, keeping her voice neutral.
'What happened between you two?'
"You know why."
'I know he declared war, but why? Why did he do it? What… what made him do it and why didn't you help him?'
A deep pain appeared in Toriel's eyes and they realized what it was. "It is… complicated, Frisk," she explained. "And I am not in a mood to explain. Go to bed or you will be tired come morning."
"Okay," they said sadly, forgetting to sign. They put the book back and returned to their room. They closed the door, then leaned back against it, covering their face with their paws. "It was because of me," they said to themself. "Because of what I did. Because… I died. Because… we died."
They looked at their hands. "Oh, Chara, what have we done? Mom… hates dad and he declared war on humanity. What have I done? I tore apart my parents." He ran a paw down his face. "Why am I still here? I died. I dusted, so why am I here and with Frisk? How did this happen? Is this my punishment?" He looked at the bed. "Guess it doesn't matter. It is what it is, I'm just going to have to adapt." He got up and returned to the bed. "I'll just keep being a voice in Frisk's head. Not like I can do anything else. I just wish I could apologize to mom and dad. And… Chara, I wish you were here. I miss you. I wish you were here with me. You'd be able to help me." He closed his eyes and let sleep overtake Frisk once more.
End of Chapter 15
